Girl With the Blues
by twilighteye927
Summary: Ziva returns to D.C. after the Team Gibbs rescue, but does she believe her homecoming is in her best interest, or in the best interest of anyone else... First Fanfic, hopefully will be some TIVA later...
1. Chapter 1

I do not own anything to do with NCIS, that is the property of CBS, the only thing I own is my NCIS ballcap...

Prologue:

Homecoming

Ziva had never known what it had felt like to be out of place before, but now, looking around at the faces of her "former" NCIS co-workers, and most importantly, her "former" team, she could understand slightly, what was usually meant by being the center of attention. She could not get the idea out of her head that she was as of yet, still someone not trusted, someone not given the full picture, and not let in on all the secrets. Then she heard someone start to clap, she looked toward the stairs and saw Director Vance clapping at seeing her return, and the rest of the office followed suit. She could only look around in a daze, her head still pounding and disoriented from her recent trip back to the states, and the deeper ache from her long torture in the desert.

She saw something else that was achingly familiar, the young goth and the old doctor who, for each of their little (quirks, she thought the word was), she had come to respect, not only as being very knowledgeable in each of their fields, but because of their understanding of Ziva herself. She was still thinking about the two of them as Abby's next action almost brought tears to the Mossad Operative's eyes, Abby's hug was a reminder of something she had thought she'd forgotten in the desert, she had forgotten that she indeed had a real family, not a family that took advantage of her heart, the heart she thought she had given to Rivkin, yet long ago had already been given to someone else.

She looked over at the three men that had traveled across the world to bring her back to them safely, who risked everything, even their lives for her. It was an action she would never have expected happened, not even from her fellow Israelis, her own people. McGee who had broken the mold which she had come to expect of her, taking a great risk to try to get her captors disoriented and thrown off, using hand to hand combat moves she never would have expected of him, which she thought she could help him improve. Gibbs, who shot like nobody else, even herself, would be able to do, something she had always envied, and who had saved all of their lives not once, or twice, but three times before they managed to escape the holding building.

Then her eyes found Tony, Tony, who had probably taken the biggest risk of all of them, who had pissed of his captors when they revealed the way they had tracked the movement of their camp, Tony, with his endless movie references, open contempt, embellishment of the truth, and most of all, the devotion he had shown to come that far for news for Ziva. It was that, more than anything else that had indeed proven his word to being the wildcard of the group, and it was that more than anything else, that made Ziva wish he wasn't just a co-worker.

But for the moment, she kept all of these things bottled up as she returned Abby's hug, wondering what the next move was.

For now however, she was glad for knowing one thing, she was home...

A.N. - We'll see where it goes, I'll add more as they come into my head


	2. The Toothpick

I do not own NCIS...(sigh)

10 minutes later Ziva was sitting in the Vance's office, a cup of strong tea in her hands supplied by Ducky, the kind old Medical Examiner had brought up his electric burner and teapot with Ziva's favorite tea that he had shared with her through the years. The feeling of the hot tea was another prick of nostalgia that she felt ashamed thinking about at that moment, but she could not forget Ducky's kind face and smile as he handed her the teacup she recognized as one she had made herself in Israel before she had joined the Mossad; thinking about that also made her stomach turn. Would she ever see Israel again, or her father, or the grave of her sister.

_No, _she thought to herself, _don't think about that, you should have left that behind you, it's all behind you now..._

She couldn't afford to think about it now, there was too much work to be done.

The whole team was now gathered around Leon's conference table in his office, even Abby, who was not content to hear a secondhand report after the fact, and who Gibbs wanted some input from. Leon was sitting at the head of the table as was customary, with Ziva sitting on the opposite side, Tony and Gibbs sat on her immediate left and right, McGee and Ducky were sitting on Vance's immediate left and right, Abby was hovering in the background behind Ziva, rubbing her shoulders and still trying to clean her up with one of her black handkerchiefs. Gibbs of course had a cup of coffee in his hand, and had a look on his face as up he was sizing up the distance to a target down his sniper scope, he was obviously thinking about what way was best to salvage the situation. Tony was leaned back in his chair, apparently at ease, yet Ziva could tell that it was just a front, the rest of his body language screamed agitated, worried, and foreboding. Ziva noticed that Tony's right hand was creeping toward her left, and then quickly withdrawing back, creeping and withdrawing. Ziva would have laughed, seeing Tony's fear of being sensitive, but she also knew that this wasn't the place, and that Gibbs or Vance would knock Tony's head off his neck with a massive head-slap, and she could feel that Tony knew that fact as well.

McGee was spending a good 3 seconds looking at everyone at the table, able to distinguish an almost palpable charge going between everyone...that charge felt something like anticipation; not knowing what the next step was, waiting for someone to put forward an idea. Ducky was also looking around at everyone else, he was reminded of a multitude of poker games and negotiations he had sat in on in his youth, where he had felt this same charged atmosphere; but he did not voice any of these at this time, because it was not his job to break the silence.

As might have been expected, Vance was the first one to speak up, and he spoke to Ziva directly.

"Well Ziva, you have absolute discretion in this matter, what do you want to do? Do you want to contact your father, or do you want us to harbor you here and have you work for us?"

Ziva didn't look up, she didn't know how to respond to the question, but something in her silence spoke volumes to both Tony and Gibbs, and they both knew what they had to do, and addressed the director at the same time...

"Director-"

"Director-"

Vance held up his hand to silence both of them, he knew that they were both trying to take control of the situation, he tried to keep himself from grinning. He addressed Ziva, "You don't have to give me an answer right now, I'll give you a week before you have to answer me. In the meantime, get a physical and a psych exam, and take some time to get yourself taken care of in general."

Ziva looked up at that, there might have been a glimmer of something behind her eyes, it might have been gratitude, but it wasn't completely obvious. Vance then turned to the rest of the team.

"All of you are gonna be taking the week off with her, yes including you two," he indicated Ducky and Abby. "Palmer will take over for you, I'll pull in an assistant for him, and I'll make a call to the FBI and pull in one of their forensic scientists, you are all taking a trip to NS Pearl Harbor, I'll make up some paperwork that you are going down there to aid in an investigation, but all you have to do is check in, you'll be on base housing, and have free access to the Island. The COD leaves in 2 days, get packed and clean yourselves up before you leave."

He stood up and walked over to stand behind his desk, to his window overlooking the Yard, before speaking to them again, "You are all dismissed, and Gibbs..."

Gibbs looked back at Vance on his way out the door.

"Take a break for once that doesn't involve building a boat."

Gibbs just looked at Vance, but the latter could tell that Gibbs understood, but still held his reservations.

Tony's head had been in another place the whole time they were in Vance's office, he believed that more than anyone else he was worried for Ziva's health, not only her physical health, but also her mental and emotional state, but when he heard about NS Pearl Harbor, he thought of the sun, the sand, and the warmth, thinking that it could at least help Ziva feel like herself again. However, thinking of NS Pearl Harbor also brought back some other thoughts, thoughts of Kate. He wondered if she had ever tried on the "2 piece" bikini he had bought her, and briefly thought of buying one for Ziva, just to see how different the response was between the two women he had most respected, but thought against it, at least until she had recovered.

Now he was back at his desk, getting ready to leave for the night, although he knew right away that he was gonna deviate from his original plans. Ziva was across the isle from him also packing a backpack, even though she had almost nothing to pack. She had the blankest look on her face that he had ever seen on her, knowing that for the moment she had no home in D.C., since her apartment had been blown up before she had left.

Tony made up his mind on the spot, he came out from behind his desk and waited for Ziva to leave her's.

"Hey Zi, why don't you come with me, we have to get you sorted out, new threads, new supplies, not to mention something to take with you to to Hawaii, so much to do and so little time."

Ziva looked at Tony, still with that same blank look, "No, thank you Tony, but no, I can take care of myself for now."

"Bullshit, Ziva look at yourself, you came here with nothing but those ratty clothes, you don't have a place, you don't have any American money, or any money at all for that matter, you need to get back on your feet, and even though you aren't going to admit it, you can't do it yourself, come on, we're going."

Tony grabbed Ziva by the arm and led her to the elevator, she didn't fight or speak another word, the two of them got all the way to Tony's car, before she said anything else to him.

"Where are you gonna take me Tony..."

"That's the wrong question Zi," Tony looked over and grinned at her, "The right question is how much time do you have to spend..."


End file.
